Tag Archives: Anamorphic

Alfredo and Andres Valles, above, have a long history of obsession with building lenses. Alfredo was working as a mechanical engineer in Barcelona in the late 1970s. Andres was a DP. They decided to start a camera rental company and start building lenses. The company was Servicevision and their first product was the Servilens series of Nikon Macros, with a… read more…

Here’s a 118-page review of anamorphic cinematography from Film and Digital Times articles since 2007. It all began with a visit to Vantage, makers of Hawk Lenses. Peter Martin and Wolfgang Baumler suggested a book on anamorphic, something about which they know quite a lot. This led to more articles over those 8 years, as anamorphic widescreen took off and has been embraced many cinematographers and manufacturers. read more…

Vantage Film announced three new sets of lenses for 65mm format. Hawk65 Anamorphic Hawk65 Anamorphic Vintage’74 Hawk65 MAX for Imax They have all been designed from scratch for 65mm digital sensors. Of course, they will also cover any other format between 35mm – 65mm. Hawk65 Anamorphic includes prime lenses from 35 mm to 250 mm and front anamorphic zooms. Hawk65 Anamorphic Vintage… read more…

Here’s an anamorphic update on the venerable DENZ optical viewfinder. The OIC 35-A from Munich-based Denz is can switch back and forth between spherical and anamorphic viewing. The ground glass holder has been adapted from the OIC 35 and allows use of all previous Arriflex 435 ground glasses. The new OIC 35-A Anamorphic/Spherical Viewfinder has an adjustable eye-piece (+/-3 diopter), removable eyecup, and comes… read more…

TSF (headquarters in Paris) and Movietech (at Pinewood Studios London) have received their first sets of Cooke Anamorphic/i lenses: 32, 40, 50, 75, 100 mm T2.3. EMIT delivered the first set in France to TSF’s Danys Bruyere. TSF has been busy buying anamorphic lenses lately. They just received one of the first Angenieux Optimo Anamorphic 56-152 mm T4 Anamorphic Zooms. More lenses to… read more…

Servicevision will screen their Scorpiolens 2x Anamorphic short “Walk in Barcelona” at NAB on Wed. April 9 from 10am – 6pm in room S107, every 2 hours.
Their 35, 40, 50, 75, and 100 mm Scorpiolens 2x anamorphics will be on display in their booth, C10542. read more…

The first Angenieux Optimo Anamorphic 56-152 mm T4 zoom lens was just delivered to Clairmont Camera Hollywood. “We just checked it out and it looks great,” said a happy Denny Clairmont. “It’s ready to go out on any one of a number of anamorphic shows we’re prepping.” This is a lightweight zoom with 2x anamorphic squeeze—approximately the size and weight of… read more…

Prototype Cooke Anamorphic 40 mm at T2.8. Photo by Jon Fauer of Cooke Optics Chairman Les Zellan taken at Micro Salon on Sony A7R with MTF PL to E-mount adapter. The beard is sharp, the skin tones are smooth, and there is remarkably no internal barrel flare from the desperately overexposed window. The shadow area retains detail. The pitch black area… read more…

At Micro Salon in Paris last week, Cooke Optics presented test films shot by John de Borman, BSC and Patrick Blossier, AFC. The Paris test is online on Vimeo. The framegrabs above show some differences between a Cooke 75 mm anamorphic at T2.8 and a Cooke S4/i 40 mm at a T2.0 – 2.8 split. The Cooke anamorphic has “classic” oval… read more…

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas can be a window on where we are heading with brave new formats. New 21:9 UHD widescreen 105″ TVs will be shown Jan 7 -10 by Samsung and LG. Do the math. Yikes, that’s 2.33:1. Not 2.39:1 or 2.35:1. Or maybe it’s 2.37:1, if you count pixels. The 105-inch curved Samsung and LG TVs have 11… read more…

The annual Cooke NAB Dinner once again unfolded at Del Frisco’s in Las Vegas for Jurassic-sized steaks (in the words of Danys Bruyere), marvelous Malbecs, celebratory champagnes, pronouncements on production, and lectures on lenses. The key to admission seemed to be a sizable inventory of Cooke lenses in the home city of the many international guests. It was a global… read more…

The sight of so many Maglites shining down the barrels of the latest anamorphic lenses at NAB sent shivers down the spine and flashes of dollar signs in the eyes. Surely there’s more to the anamorphic look than oval out-of-focus highlights and thin blue lines. And how often do we shoot a scene with a Maglite two inches from the… read more…

We’ve heard much about anamorphic and vintage lenses lately. Why not combine both? HAWK VINTAGE´74 Anamorphic 2x lenses were shown at Cinec a few weeks ago. The set currently includes V-Lite 28, 35, 45, 55 ,65, 80, 110, and 140 mm — with more to come. The new Hawk Vintage ’74 lenses provide the lower contrast, chromatic characteristics and flares… read more…

Vantage Film announced that they are investing € 7 Million in development of new lenses and tools. This represents the largest expansion in the company’s 20 year history. Owners Peter Martin and Wolfgang Baumler confirmed today that Vantage Film’s latest investment will allow the company to expand its capacity in research, development, design, production, manufacturing and distribution of their Hawk motion picture… read more…

Andres Valles surprised me on NAB opening day with a preview of a set of 13 Scorpiolens anamorphic primes to be introduced at IBC in September. He also introduced me to the lens designer, physicist and optical engineer Cristina Alcaide. read more…

Vantage Film, the designer and manufacturer of Hawk Lenses, premiered their lightweight, compact Hawk Anamorphic 45-90mm T2.8 zoom lens at Cine Gear Expo. It will be available in both 2x and 1.3x squeeze (2x for 4:3 and 4-perf image areas; and 1.3x for 16:9 and 3-perf image areas). The anamorphic element is in front. The zoom lens weighs a mere… read more…

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